In this article, the author looks at the nature and scope of joint initiatives between West and East European countries aimed at promoting the information society. In order to evaluate the pros and cons, opportunities and dangers of such co-operation the author analyses the principal stages in the efforts of East European countries to join the information society. The analysis is divided into three main parts. In the first part, the author describes the conditions in which the information society has emerged. She assesses the technical infrastructure and advances made in related areas, such as education and R&D, and draws conclusions based on European Union documents for selected countries applying for EU membership. The author also discusses EU initiatives geared towards co-operation with the East European countries in the field of infrastructure. In the second part of the article, the author analyses the assistance provided by West European countries and the European Union for associate member states to help the latter create, elaborate and improve national strategies for launching the information society. A serves of joint EU-CEE forums stressed that East European governments need to prepare their own domestic strategies and plans of action for developing an information society and to appoint official national co-ordinators to oversee this process. A panel was set up to assess the co-ordination of policy between the European Union and East European countries. The conclusions of this panel and an assessment of existing strategies provided the basis for an anlysis of the joint characteristics and the strong and weak points of these documents. In the third part of the article, the author analyses and assesses pilot schemes connected with the information society that have been launched independently by East European countries or initiated within the framework of co-operation with West European countries. The author demonstrates that these schemes

Application of Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration, Materiały EU/CEEC Forum on Information Society, Office for State Information System, Praga 1997.

Building the European Information Society for Us All. Final Policy Report of the High-level Expert Group April 1997, European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, Bruksela 1997.